FORM AND DESIGN IN SANTO DOMINGAN POTTERY 53 



excavated by the writer at San Juan on the north coast of Samana 

 Peninsula, along with many other fragmentary vessels, similar as to 

 firing, red slip or paint, form, and decoration. The walls of this and 

 of other well-fired vessels of the painted red ware are thinner than 

 are those of the unpainted terra-cotta pottery groups, the nearest ap- 

 proach being the unpainted, incised black ware. The introduction 

 of a central diaphragm separating the A^essel into two oval compart- 

 ments is unique. The applied ribbons of clay, placed bilaterally in 

 vertical positions on the outer walls near the margin, place this vessel 

 within the classification of the knobbed decorated pottery which in 

 Santo Domingo and Porto Rico alwaj^s comes within the painted red 

 ware group. Similar pottery has been reported from the Cauca 

 River Valley of Colombia. 



Earthenware water bottles with regularly formed tall cylindrical 

 necks occur in the Greater Antilles only in Haiti and Santo Domingo. 

 Similar Peruvian and eastern Gulf State forms, notably from 

 Arkansas, are known. The specialized neck is surmounted with a 

 knobbed rim. Occasionallj'' a bulbous enlargement of the neck next 

 the rim entirely replaced the decorative figurines which are usually 

 luted on as decorative embellishments of the lower neck sector. 

 This latter form of water bottle, slightlj^ resembling a double gourd, 

 but without other than occasional designs in decorative intaglio, 

 usually belongs to the painted or slipped gray ware. The slip may 

 be kaolin applied after firing, but ordinarily the creamy white paint 

 is well baked on the smoothly polished surface. The white painted 

 gray vcare is usually further distinguished by a creamy white or 

 granular paste, distinct from the black loamy paste characteristic of 

 most of the earthenware from the island. The body of the Santo 

 Domingan water bottle is spherical, having been shaped by coiling 

 and hand modeling, aided with a calabash fragment or conch shell 

 spatula, and flat polished pebbles. 



The efiigy canteen from Central America is occasionall}' duplicated 

 in finds from Santo Domingan kitchen middens. This form is 

 distinctive in that the facial features of the effigy or figurine head 

 are luted in the form of balls and ribbons of clay on to the body 

 of the vessel, which thus is incorporated in the design as the figurine 

 head. This form of effigy canteen occurs on the Gulf coast of 

 Florida, also in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. The neck 

 opening of this Gulf coast bottle is greater than in Santo Domingan 

 bottles, while the Arkansan bottles with tall, narrow cylindrical 

 necks are not effigy vessels and frequently bear painted designs, an 

 additional unlike feature. 



A punctate decorative design, resembling punctate designs from 

 Florida and the Gulf coast, appears as a common type of decora- 



